Retirement home residents ask for road repairs

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:31:48 CDTBy: Charlie Schlenker

The City of Bloomington has struggled with a backlog of unrepaired streets for years now. And some residents are taking their campaigns for better roads public. Herm Harding lives at Luther Oaks, a retirement community on the far southwest side of Bloomington. He and other residents of Luther Oaks are buttonholing aldermen to ask for improvements to Lutz Road.

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"It has become a pretty hazardous little road. When you bypass somebody coming they other direction, the understanding is that both cars have to drop both right side wheels off the pavement, it's that narrow."

Harding says the city estimates it will take two million dollars to improve the entire road and that city planners are not anxious to put that much money into a road that gets only a thousand vehicles per day when others higher on the priority list carry three thousand per day. But, Harding says the calculation is not that simple.

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"They've paved three alleys behind some people's houses as the city has to maintain maintenance this past year and I've pointed out I think our road creates more of a hazard than some of these alleys."

The preliminary budget includes only 60,000 for Lutz Road. Harding suggests improving only up to the retirement community and deferring the country road section beyond, which he says carries less traffic. A Deputy City Manager has not yet returned a call seeking comment on the residents' campaign.